It’s speedy Chips at the front of the line and it’s usually a long line too.
Congrats on the new 26m mark and the starring role in the Washington Post.
Hope they carry some of the posts from time to time since it would certainly add balance and truth to their “reporting”.

I am so outraged at this Supreme Court. Women everywhere need to stand up and vote out the GOP thugs, then push for impeachment of Scalia and Thomas for their improper actions with the Koch Brothers, and then Pres. O can appoint 2 new justices. This Supreme Court is downright scary!!!

the clintons is still up to their old tricks. Triangulation is in their blood. Miyah Angelo once states. “When someone shows you who they really are, believe them”. They are all about themselves. Pres Obama is cleaning up all of their messes. Thanks but no thanks. No more Clintons Period.

🙂 🙂
Well, in fairness, when it’s politically windy it flutters a wee bit, from silence to forceful proclamations in line with most popular opinion. See, at that point she is sincerely (get it?) convinced she can sound …presidential? … powerful? … principled? ….decisive? …….Who knows?

Well, the verdict was shared (much) earlier today, and Hillary’s tweet is timed @ 7:34pm. Took her a while to respond, didn’t it? (I have this impression of Hillary as one who stands in one spot, head swiveling from side to side, until she sees which way the wind is blowing – at least when she’s not taking swipes at PBO.)

Yes, corporations win big today. And women lose, huge, again. As the court extends the personal protections of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to for-profit corporations, like the one belonging to Hobby Lobby’s Green family, with its more than 500 craft stores and more than 13,000 employees, it does so with the promise (pinky swear) that it will not ripple into a series of disastrous outcomes when employers decline to afford their workers vaccinations, or psychiatric care, or equal pay, based on similarly strongly held religious convictions. Nor will it implicate corporations that aren’t closely held, although—as Larry notes—Justice Alito seems unable to pinky swear to that either.

I’m not impressed. She waits to see the overall reaction and then gives her “scathing” remarks. Because it’s
“popular” to be against it. Meanwhile, she’s silent on the union ruling, among other things.

Also, Meal, I’m not seeing any solutions offered by her. How about talking about expanding remedies for these women under the Affordable Care Act or other ways that Congress can address this terrible decision. How about addressing the problem of a Supreme Court majority that puts corporations before people.

Yes Doc Bobfr, SCOTUS individual Justices can be impeached. However, the impeachment process must start by the John Boehner’s controlled house. A Never, never gonna happen while the Rusty Orange Crush is residing as Speaker……., unfortunately.

Your Tweets are much needed. A true rally tweets that hopefully would get Us to the Polls in Nov and beyond.

Thank you, Nena. That’s why I linked the fact that #SCOTUS Justices can be impeached with #LandslideDEMS2014. We take control of the House and Senate in the 114th Congress and Scalia, Thomas and Alito are all targets given their numerous conflicts of interests.

As they decided to side with Bush over Gore. The SCOTUS has done immeasurable harm to democracy in the US in the past 14 years – I think you are the most wonderful group of folks because you pick yourselves up, dust yourselves down and look to the ballot box to resolve the issues. It happened in 2008 and will happen again in 2014.

The day HAS to be coming when only white men over 55 vote for the GOP – no amount of gerrymandering or voter suppression can resolve that problem for the republicans.

Indeed. The left today are No Longer like the Left from the 1960s and the 1970s who would never have tolerated these unjust rules. They would have been on the streets and marching, making noise and holding GOP accountable alongside SCOTUS.

I think it is hard for many to believe the battles won in the 60s & 70s have to be refought – add to that the RW media – so many do not even know about these decisions – may discover it when the pharmacy wants payment for the script – or their pay drops because the union – to which they do not belong – folds.

Exactly, 99ts! This was Bush v. Gore all over again! Notice how they restricted their ruling’s applicability. Not all religiously held beliefs are valid in denying insurance in other situations like blood transfusion. Religion only matters when it’s about women using contraceptives. The court in Bush v. Gore also said that their decision was not to be used as precedent. The right wingers on this court are all about ideology. They could care less about justice. They don’t even pretend to be consistent.

I enjoyed a post of yours I read late yesterday (my world) as to the Presidents you have known – we are of an age – my father (having served in WWII) lectured us on Eisenhower – but President Kennedy was the first to attract my conscious political mind.

First the unraveling of civil rights. We see it every day. Then the complementary unraveling of women’s rights.

We don’t want women to work or get equal pay – we want them home as they were pre-World War II, without separately earned resources so they could move about at will? Then push home-schooling for children, especially in the Bible Belt – kill two birds with one stone. Don’t let women and children out of the house, and they won’t be influenced by the modern world. Get rid of the abortion providers FOR WOMEN, even the buffer zones that surround the clinics. Get rid of covering contraception charges FOR WOMEN under medical benefit plans. Many women can’t afford contraception without the coverage.

There was a huge struggle for civil rights – still is, IN AMERICA – we all know what that entailed and still entails. Women, too, only got the vote in 1920, a year before my own mother was born. A YEAR BEFORE MY OWN MOTHER WAS BORN. IN AMERICA. Police looked the other way on domestic abuse, “back then.” Used to be women couldn’t get credit under their own names and salaries, IN MY LIFETIME. Used to be women had no defense against sex discrimination in the workplace, which includes sexual harassment. And don’t get me started on LGBT rights.

Many of us here lived through the 20th-Century battles for civil rights and women’s rights. All for nothing?

You just made me think of something. I remember when all married women signed their name and were identified as Mrs. (man’s name)——as if they belonged to their husbands, did not have a separate identity. I don’t see anyone doing that any more, thankfully.
Yes, I see what they’re trying to do—–go back to the old ways—-old days—–women have become way too independent for this radical religious segment, much prefer their women submissive and dependent.

What you say is powerful and compelling. I try to inform my female students about what is happening but I teach in a very upscale, but tea party/GOP town, so I have to be careful what I say. You’ve expressed, so clearly, the frustration that I feel. I’m sure Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the Mott sisters, as well as Susan B. Anthony are turning over in our graves to see us regress like this.

Of course the young men are also listening to my passionate “soap-box” moments, which they all seem to appreciate as I link them to the values of liberty and equality this country was founded on. I also tell them that I am biased as I am a woman, which they usually laugh in response. As I was born in Holland and grew up in a Dutch home in a French-Canadian province (Quebec) in Canada, and then immigrated to the United States in 1999 and became a citizen in 2009, I have quite a different perspective on American History (which is what I teach) which many students seem to appreciate. I am teaching American History (Gr 11) in high school right now for summer school and am loving it.

I am very frustrated with all the negativity that the Republicans in Congress are causing towards the role of the Federal government and I am thankful to PBO that he is offsetting that by his speeches and actions.

Excellent comment, JOB! One thing that history teaches us is that things can go backwards if people don’t remain vigilant! It happened when the progress of Reconstruction period was replaced by the regression of the Jim Crow period. It’s time for all of us to wake up! We must not allow all the sacrifices that got us where we are to be ” all for nothing.”

Wasn’t this the solution to the catholic churches when they complained about the contraception coverage? Not to mention – 99% of catholic women that I have known since the 1960s – use oral contraceptives – or just gave up on sex. Maybe the latter will sort out some of the insane white men.

Sooner or later a Pope will stop the anti birth control movement with ONE statement – and all of these fools will be lost

Shocked and dismayed to hear about Rolf Harris’ conviction for assault against children today.

Along with seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show 50 years ago, I fondly remember Rolf Harris’ “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport” song — so much so that I had the album — my favorite line from that song was “Mind me platypus duck, Bill…”

On a similar topic – we currently have a royal commission into child abuse – which put out its first report on Monday.

“The royal commission says it has identified several main themes from the many personal stories it has heard.
The themes include repeated abuse and multiple perpetrators, barriers to reporting the abuse and adults that have systematically failed to protect children. ”

So this lawsuit was a waste of time and money. If 90% of companies are privately held I wonder if they would advise their employees that they will no longer have an insurance plan that covers contraceptions. I am hoping that PBO and the new DEM house & senate will pass an extension of Medicare by allowing people to buy into it with a subsidy if their employers are being dicks.

I was fired up before, but now I feel implacable! Looking forward to seeing Boehner cry when he hands the gavel over to Speaker Pelosi. I will do all I can for red to BLUE candidates. So much of it is name recognition as well as encouraging voters anywhere in the country. We can tweet about them, like on Facebook, donate, write articles, we can even phone bank from a distance if we know the issues. I wanted to add another great tweet to your Hobby Lobby/SCOTUS collection. I just LOVE this image! Women have already been organized and a force in getting Dems elected. It’s going to become even greater. I’m IN! Pres Obama is amazing and I want to see what he can do with a congress he can work with.

It’s appalling that certain companies can deny their employees access to contraception, something that is used by nearly all women of childbearing age, whether single or married.

The decision on Union dues was not surprising, and for the record, a4alice, is getting about equal air time on CBS radio news today. It means that Unions need to re-evaluate how they operate and recruit members in the 21st century.

Wednesday, July 2nd, marks the 50th anniversary of President LBJ’s signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Here’s a very brief audio of Kamala Harris speaking at an event in Los Angeles marking this anniversary. It may be shallow of me, but I appreciate a President who sounds calm and reasonable (like PBO), and Kamala Harris’ voice has that quality. Check it out.

Kamala Harris needs a bit more seasoning before she runs for President, but I would love to see her as our first female President. If my man Joe Biden doesn’t run in 2016, I’m ready for a Martin O’Malley-Deval Patrick ticket.

I’m with you about Kamala Harris. I’ve seen her in person a couple of times and she is wicked smart, deeply conversant in the issues of the day and a very warm person. She kicks it BIG TIME in her job and I have no doubt she will go far in politics if she so chooses.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court today ruled that for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby can discriminate against their female employees by denying them birth control coverage as required under Obamacare as long as those corporations believe that doing so “violates” their religious beliefs.
According to the Court, “closely-held” corporations like Hobby Lobby are protected by a 1993 law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act – a law that protects people – let me repeat, PEOPLE, as in homo sapiens sapiens – from having “substantial burdens” placed on their religious beliefs.
There are a lot of things to talk about when it comes to the Hobby Lobby case – the fact that Hobby Lobby’s arguments weren’t based in scientific fact, the fact that Hobby Lobby actually invests in companies that make the very same birth control it says goes against its religious beliefs, the fact that it’s more than ready to pay for male birth control procedures like vasectomies, the fact that much of what they sell comes from China, the home of forced abortions – you name it.
All of these things are important and show just how insane and fundamentally hypocritical the Court’s decision really was.

Why aren’t more people showing up to vote in elections? Perhaps they’re too stressed out. Seriously: new research has found that citizens who are most prone to anxiety are more likely to skip the polls.
The study specifically looked at cortisol, a stress hormone in the human body. Head researcher Jeffrey French explained the significance: “Our study is unique in that it is the first to examine whether differences in physiology may be causally related to differences in political activity.”
Normally, cortisol increases in the body during stressful situations. However, certain individuals have naturally occurring heightened levels of cortisol, generally indicating that they are more anxious people overall. The research confirmed that people with higher base levels of cortisol had significantly spottier voting records than those with less present in their systems. Even after factoring in differences like party affiliation, age, income, ethnicity, etc., high levels of cortisol seemed to make a significant difference throughout these demographics.
While the researchers acknowledge that stress is hardly a major factor in determining whether someone will wind up voting, it still plays a measurable role. Besides, as they point out, given America’s consistently low voter turnouts, it’s important to discover all of the many reasons that people aren’t showing up at the polls so that they can be addressed.

Think you’re stressed NOW??? The only way to get rid of it is to VOTE, otherwise you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!!

// A photo of President Obama, laughing with Pope Francis. First Lady Michelle Obama, pictured wiping tears of laughter from her eyes. A screen grab of Obama from the night he announced US commandos had killed Osama bin Laden.

They’re all new memes sprouting up on Twitter attached to the hashtag, #SoSueMe – mocking House Speaker John Boehner’s announcement that he intends to sue the president. No one knows precisely why Boehner’s taking the president to court, so Obama supporters on Twitter are filling in the blanks. //

I just donated to our Prez via OFA. With all the crap flying around today, that made me feel a little better.
Anyone who can, please donate before midnight and lets send a message to the GOP that we are not
sitting around passively taking their BS. #FORWARD.

I did the same with OFA for POTUS, Hope. I’m getting ready to donate to DCCC. I’m so glad to do it today! It’s not only amounts, they are proud of the number of people who donate. The small donors making a big difference together.

TME, yes we the non-millionaires will make the difference. I was never happier to donate than I was today.
Donated to DNC last week. We will ignore the noise and do our grassroots ‘thing’…one dollar at a time.

“The New Testament never—not one time—applies the ‘Christian’ label to a business or even a government,” he writes. “The tag is applied only to individuals. If the Bible is your ultimate guide, the only organization one might rightly term ‘Christian’ is a church. And this is only because a church in the New Testament is not a building or a business, but a collection of Christian individuals who have repented, believed on Christ, and are pursuing a life of holiness.”